Olivia goes to Washington

I have recently become more than obsessed with a new ABC drama, now in its third season, which comes on afters Grey's Anatomy on Thursday nights called Scandal. Scandal follows main character, Olivia Pope - a high-profile, lawyer and ex- director of communications for the White House who now uses her brilliance, experience, charm and connections to fix problems for the elite in Washington DC out of her law firm, Olivia Pope and Associates. Olivia is determined, successful, stoic, and earned her rock solid reputation by succeeding in solving problems for her clients without exception.



As a powerful woman of color in the nation's most powerful city, Olivia has a high level of access compared to most people but especially compared to other people of color. The majority of her White House colleagues are white, though her law firm is more diverse in terms of race and gender. Her team is composed of two men of color and two white women, all with unique skill sets that allow them to be the best in the business.

It seems at first that Olivia has no problems of her own, until viewers find out that she is having an affair with the President. Olivia ran the president's campaign and allowed another member of his team to rig the election in order to win.

This plot complication has shock value simply for the fact that presidential affairs are shocking, but I believe this particular affair requires further analysis by viewers because of the gendered and racial tensions inherent in this relationship. It is also important to note that this show is written by Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey's Anatomy.

First is the question, is Olivia Pope allowed to be a professional black woman and have an affair with the President? Audiences are introduced to an independent, black, female professional, whose weakness is the President. Some may ask show creators why, when Olivia Pope is the only strong female and black lead on television would they make this decision. Many view it as potentially damaging to her character. Why is it that she couldn't just be the strong, independent black woman without doing something to mess it all up, especially when there are no depictions to the contrary.

While I think this is a fair question, I think it is important also that we do not allow the politics of respectability to dictate character's decisions. Olivia Pope is both a thriving professional and the president's lover. I think that writers do a fair job of exploring this contradiction and responding to the politics of respectability in the show.

 Throughout the show, Olivia repeats that she would have been able to get the president elected fairly if she hadn't fallen in love with him. Her internal dialogue highlights her self-confidence and awareness. She knows that she is the best and blames her one failure on having let her guard down for a man. I find this interesting because of the fact that men often limit opportunity for women by doing things like denying them promotions or asking them to give up work and take care of children. However it becomes more complicated here by acknowledging that men can take women's success even after they already have it. The show asks viewers to recognize that women have to take extra precaution with their work lives.

In a recent episode, Olivia's father engages and complicates this conversation after discovering the affair by reminding her that she has to be twice as good as other people to get half of what they have.

She understands the implications of her actions as one of the only women of color in such a high-powered position. And the show creators are aware of this as well. In this conversation they communicate the nuances of the black professional experience. This is a conversation I have had with my own mother.

I also want to look at the racial tensions in Olivia's relationship with the president. She tells him at one point that  their relationship is very, Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemmings. In other words, she serves to satisfy his jungle fever, while he is able to reap the power she in many ways handed to him. While the President is immediately insulted by this comparison, I think it is fair to say that a powerful white man sleeping with a black woman on the side is not exactly tolerable by the American public. Olivia's race is important in this relationship. Should their secret come out, her femaleness would not be the only aspect of her identity at play. Unspoken moral codes suggest that interracial relationships are inappropriate for the White House.

One last thing I question about Olivia Pope's character is, where are her black friends? Olivia Pope has two black friends in this show if you count her ex-fiance as one of them. From the age of twelve her father sent her to elite boarding schools meaning that she probably did not encounter many black people unless they could afford them. She worked hard to get to where she is, but is also privileged by her high socio-economic status. To me this suggests that in order to achieve financial and social success as a black person in America, you have to sacrifice your blackness.